The police investigation of vandalism at Flathead High School last week is almost wrapped up and the lead investigating officer expects to submit his report Thursday or Friday.

School Resource Officer Cory Clarke anticipates that reports will be sent to the Flathead County Attorney’s Office and Kalispell City Attorney’s Office. Prosecutors will then decide if charges should be brought and against whom.

Clarke said most of the 21 students involved probably are candidates for lesser charges for the incident which left the school damaged on May 10.

“Basically, a very small, small percentage did 99 percentage of the damage,” Clarke said.

Clarke found that despite a flier being sent out the prior week advising students not to participate in senior pranks, some students thought it would be comical to participate in one anyway.

What started out as a small party grew through a group text about the prank and 21 students ended up at school all at once, according to Clarke.

Those involved never intended to break into the school, Clarke said. They thought they had a key that would open a door, but when everyone arrived, the key did not work.

“A couple of folks then tried to raise a window, and too many hands offered to help,” Clarke said. The glass shattered, someone entered and let the other students in.

The first wave of pranksters stuck to the original plan to put Solo cups full of just a bit of water in a hallway.

It is a prank trend that is a “ha, ha, move it out of the way” type of joke that is very popular on the internet and causes inconvenience, but very little damage, Clarke noted.

Then a second wave of pranksters allegedly took it a little farther by spewing sawdust and toilet paper.

The significant damage came when one or two individuals showed up and went wild, Clarke said. A large moose statue that was on loan was knocked over and broken, water fountains were ripped from the walls and expensive trash cans were damaged.

The damage was discovered the next morning. Staffers and football players who arrived early had most of the mess cleaned up by the time students showed up for class.

Clarke spent much of the past week investigating the crimes. By state law, people who cause more than $1,500 in damage can be charged with felony criminal mischief in Flathead District Court. Lesser amounts of damage can be charged as misdemeanors in Kalispell Municipal Court.

State law also allows for felony burglary charges to be brought against anyone who “knowingly enters or remains unlawfully in an occupied structure” if “the person has the purpose to commit an offense in the occupied structure or the person knowingly or purposely commits any other offense within that structure.”

Clarke said it will be up to prosecutors to determine what charges, if any, to bring in the case.

He stressed that not all the students participated in the heavy vandalism.

“It wasn’t a lot of malicious intent,” Clarke said. “It was ill-advised.”

Clarke said he thought the Flathead Class of 2016 was a “bunch of really good kids” and he didn’t want the incident to “besmirch or sully their good intentions and causes throughout their 3 7/8 years here.”

Clarke’s investigation has progressed separately from the school district’s.

Clarke has to read students their Miranda rights and proceed through legal channels, while school officials can question students and hand out punishment in a less formal manner.

One parent said that her son’s punishment for the May 10 incident included a four-day suspension and being barred from the June 3 graduation ceremony, but that parent was not allowed to know what punishment other students received.

School officials have remained mum about disciplinary measures and have not identified the students involved.

The issue is expected to come up at the Kalispell Public Schools Board of Trustees meeting on May 24 at 6 p.m.

Reporter Megan Strickland can be reached at 758-4459 or mstrickland@dailyinterlake.com.